The Home Stretch
17th - 22nd August
26778 - 27147 kms

After a troule-free lap around Oz, it was the final few kilometres to the ferry terminal in Port Melbourne that nearly killed me! As the evening light began to fade into darkness, Lutzy led the way on his red racing bike, while I lagged some distance behind, all loaded up and struggling to keep him in sight. At one stage he slipped out of view, leading to an interesting game of cat-and-mouse around the busy Melbourne streets - as lights, smells and noises dazzled my senses... During that half-hour of nervous, adrenaline-pumping action, we'd weaved our way through peak-hour traffic and at the end of it found ourselves at the edge of Port Philip Bay. There in front of us - lit up like a Christmas tree - was my lift back to Tassie, the Spirit of Tasmania. Finally, after 18 months, I was heading home!

Connecting the Dots
12th - 15th August
26, 482 kms - 26, 778 kms

It was a warm summer's morning when the Spirit of Tasmania drifted in to the calm and peaceful waters of Port Phillip Bay. On the top deck, a young Tasmanian man stood - alone, silent, excited, and a tad nervous. He watched the country's second largest city slowly materialise on the horizon. Melbourne. The starting point for his long and arduous lap around Oz.

It was a warm winter's afternoon, 535 days later, when that same man returned to Melbourne - triumphant, after having cycled over 26,000 kms around one of the largest countries in the world. This is the story of the final few days on the mainland of Oz.

Goolwa to Renmark
25163 kms - 25763 kms
24th June - 1st August

Back when the land was flat and featureless, a giant turtle left his home on the east coast to go on a walkabout. He headed inland but didn't get far before he began to miss his ocean home. Travelling this way and that, dragging his enormous flippers through the landscape, he followed the smell of the sea. For thousands of kilometres he travelled the land, before reaching the ocean at last - diving in at a place we now know as the Southern Ocean, on S.A.'s south coast. This turtle's deep, winding tracks in the landscape had formed a vast and extensive network of creeks, billabongs, lagoons and rivers. He had created the mighty Murray.

- Ngarrindjeri story

Cape Jervis to Goolwa
19th - 23rd July
25019 kms - 25163 kms

The ride out of Cape Jervis nearly killed me - 6 kms of UPHILL!!! It took me nearly an hour to get to the top, my clothes drenched in sweat, a few salty rivers cascading off my jawline... I was knackered.

Le Tour de KI
9th - 18th July
24572 kms - 25019 kms

While the elite athletes of the cycling world battled it out for the yellow jersey in the French countryside, on the other side of the world an equally-fierce competition was taking place. The not-so-elite Mann brothers were focussed on their own multi-discipline contest, which involved fishing, beer drinking... and a little bit of cycling. This was the mighty "Tour de K.I."